Name: 走進迪斯尼的 "51 區"，這裡是發明光劍和其他技術的地方 | WSJ (Inside Disney’s ‘Area 51,’ Where Lightsabers and Other Tech Are Invented | WSJ)
Uploaded: 2024-06-12T04:51:56.000Z
Duration: 8 min 49 s

Playful droids, electromagnetic eyes, and...

These inventions represent Disney's most experimental technologies, made here at its research and development lab.

這些發明代表了迪斯尼最具實驗性的技術，都是在迪斯尼的研發實驗室裡完成的。

It's more like Area 51, and we've done a really good job of making sure that people don't understand what's happening inside of this building.

它更像是 51 區，我們做得非常好，確保人們不瞭解這棟樓裡發生了什麼。

Inventors here build creations that are crucial to drawing guests to Disney's parks.

這裡的發明家們創造出的作品對迪士尼樂園吸引遊客至關重要。

The centerpiece of the company's most profitable unit, Disney is facing increasing competition from rivals like Universal and Lanny Smoot.

作為公司最賺錢部門的核心，迪斯尼正面臨著環球影業和蘭尼-斯穆特等競爭對手日益激烈的競爭。

The guy behind that lightsaber is Disney's most decorated inventor.

光劍背後的那個人是迪士尼功勳卓著的發明家。

If I see something that in the real world that is kind of quirky, maybe an illusion, I can build a whole attraction out of that.

如果我在現實世界中看到一些奇特的東西，也許是一種幻覺，我就可以用它來打造一個完整的景點。

With Disney about to embark on a major expansion of its theme park business, and with competition in the industry intensifying, So, any direction?

迪斯尼即將開始大規模擴張其主題公園業務，行業競爭也在加劇。

the company gave the journal a behind-the-scenes look at the tech that could make its next attraction.

該公司向本刊介紹了可能成為下一個景點的幕後技術。

I keep an inventory of the things that I need to do, prototypes that come about quickly.

我把需要做的事情、很快就會出現的原型都列在清單上。

If you don't capture it and don't bring it out of your mind into the physical world, you can sometimes lose it.

如果你不去捕捉它，不把它從腦海中帶入物質世界，有時就會失去它。

斯穆特是迪斯尼專利領域的領軍人物。

He's named on more than 70 with the company, and more than 100 throughout his career.

他在該公司參與了 70 多項提名，在其職業生涯中參與了 100 多項提名。

The idea for it is to replace a lot of the mechanisms that would be inside of a robotic head.

它的設計理念是取代機器人頭部的許多機械裝置。

This, of course, is a much bigger version of it.

There are magnets at the top, bottom, left, and right of the inner eye.

內眼的頂部、底部、左側和右側都有磁鐵。

And these coils create a magnetic field that move the eye left and right and up and down.

這些線圈產生的磁場會左右、上下移動眼睛。

In his 25-plus years at Disney, he helped create those eyeballs, seen here in the chameleon Pascal, the floating head of Madame Leota inside the haunted mansion, Awaken the spirit!

在迪斯尼工作的 25 年多時間裡，他幫助製作了變色龍帕斯卡爾的眼球，以及鬼屋《喚醒精靈》中利奧塔夫人漂浮的頭顱！

the water harps at Epcot, and an X-ray flashlight used to teach fire safety with tech.

還有一個 X 射線手電筒，用於教授消防安全技術。

If you have technology, but it doesn't fit into a bigger picture, which is the story of Star Wars, or the story of one of our characters, it's of no use.

如果你擁有技術，但它無法融入更大的畫面，也就是《星球大戰》的故事，或者我們其中一個角色的故事，那它就毫無用處。

Some of those ideas take seemingly impossible things from the screen.

其中一些創意從螢幕上看到了看似不可能的東西。

A computer-generated lightsaber, for instance, and make them real.

例如，電腦生成的光劍，並讓它們成為現實。

We have to make something that a guest can wield or that they can see on the stage and it has to look just like it does in the movies.

我們必須製作出客人可以揮舞的東西，或者他們可以在舞臺上看到的東西，而且看起來必須和電影中的一樣。

This is what Smoot calls the hero lightsaber, the most realistic one Disney has ever come up with.

這就是斯穆特所說的 "英雄光劍"，也是迪士尼有史以來最逼真的光劍。

It was used in performances at the company's immersive Star Wars hotel before it closed in 2023.

在 2023 年關閉之前，它曾在該公司的沉浸式星球大戰酒店的表演中使用。

The key issue here was to have something that was both retractable but had the same diameter along its blade.

問題的關鍵在於，既要能伸縮，又要有相同直徑的葉片。

According to the patent, a motor in the hilt activates two long plastic semi-cylinders which come together and extend, making the blade, which is then lit by a flexible strip of LEDs.

根據該專利，刀柄上的電機可啟動兩個長長的塑膠半圓柱體，使其合攏並伸出，形成刀片，然後由柔性 LED 燈帶點亮。

This is just one of the lightsabers that Smoot has worked on.

這只是斯穆特曾製作過的光劍之一。

Another was used in a model of what we call the penumbra, the light that is sort of ephemerally attached to the saber.

另一個被用於我們所說的半影的模型中，也就是那種短暫附著在軍刀上的光。

He's also helped develop technology for two more, one of which guests used in real-life lightsaber training.

他還幫助開發了另外兩項技術，其中一項被客人用於現實生活中的光劍訓練。

I have a sort of a cottage industry in lightsabers.

Each of those inventions is actually a completely technically different thing.

實際上，每項發明在技術上都是完全不同的。

The pressure is greater when a guest already is familiar with what this thing should be.

如果客人已經熟悉了這件事的內涵，壓力就會更大。

And the challenge is to deliver on that belief.

我們面臨的挑戰是如何實現這一信念。

Getting the magic right is the kind of thing that can draw in new guests and turn them into repeat customers, which Disney needs.

迪斯尼需要的正是這種能吸引新遊客並把他們變成常客的魔力。

Its rival Universal plans to open a major expansion to its Florida theme park in 2025, something Disney hasn't done there since 2019, and fans are clamoring for new experiences.

迪士尼的競爭對手環球影城計劃在 2025 年對其佛羅里達主題公園進行大規模擴建，而迪士尼自 2019 年以來就沒有在佛羅里達進行過這樣的擴建。

Walt Disney Imagineering is in service of making the parks attractive, and if you can make something more fun, more amazing, more surprising, more people come, and that's part of our business, to make sure we have happy people, and a lot of happy people in our parks.

華特迪士尼幻想工程公司的工作就是讓樂園變得更有吸引力，如果你能讓樂園變得更有趣、更神奇、更令人驚喜，就會有更多的人來，這也是我們業務的一部分，就是要確保我們的樂園裡有快樂的人，有很多快樂的人。

One recent addition was these beady extroids for Star Wars Land.

最近新增的一個項目就是為星球大戰樂園設計的這些炯炯有神的機器人。

But recreating the familiar isn't all Imagineering does.

但是，再現熟悉的場景並不是想象工程的全部。

Sometimes, Smoot's job is creating things no one has seen before, like the holo-tile.

有時，斯穆特的工作就是創造前所未見的東西，比如全息圖。

It's the world's first and only multi-directional, modular, multi-person holo-tile floor, which is sort of an omnidirectional treadmill for multiple people.

這是世界上第一個也是唯一一個多方向、模塊化、多人全瓷磚地板，有點像供多人使用的全方位跑步機。

The floor is made up of tiles of small articulating discs that spin and tilt to undo walking or push items in any direction.

地板是由小鉸接圓盤瓷磚組成的，這些圓盤可以旋轉和傾斜，以取消行走或將物品推向任何方向。

In order for the floor to know where I am walking and to counteract my motion, we use LIDAR.

為了讓地板知道我在哪裡行走，並抵消我的運動，我們使用了激光雷達。

Beams of light, or circles of light, are emitted from these devices, and the reflected time of flight of light lets them know where my feet are on the floor.

這些設備發出光束或光圈，通過反射光的飛行時間就能知道我的腳在地板上的位置。

And knowing where my feet are and the strides I'm taking, we can use software to control the floor to undo my forward motion or my sideways motion.

知道我的腳在哪裡，我的步幅是多少，我們就可以用軟件來控制地板，讓我的前行或側向運動都不復存在。

Smoot says holo-tile is one of his longest projects.

斯穆特說，holo-tile 是他耗時最長的項目之一。

他差不多七年前就開始做這件事了。

I'm going to go a little off-brand, off the Disney brand, to Star Trek, where they have a thing called a holodeck.

我要去迪士尼品牌以外的地方，去《星際迷航》，那裡有一種叫 "全息甲板 "的東西。

And that allows people to walk around in a place that is physically small, but they can walk forever anywhere they want.

這樣，人們就可以在一個面積很小的地方四處走動，但卻可以永遠走到他們想去的任何地方。

This woodland pattern is quite popular, sir.

這種林地圖案很受歡迎，先生。

Disney hasn't announced plans for holo-tile yet, but in the future, it could allow guests to harness the force.

迪斯尼還沒有宣佈holo-tile的計劃，但在未來，它可以讓遊客駕馭力量。

Or make them feel like they are physically moving through space while using VR.

或者讓他們在使用 VR 時感覺自己在空間中實際移動。

The work that Lanny Smoot has done on the holo-tile is an incredible contribution to both how we could potentially design new attractions in virtual reality, in mixed reality, in order to leverage that investment that we've made.

蘭尼-斯穆特（Lanny Smoot）在全息瓷磚方面所做的工作，對於我們如何在虛擬現實和混合現實中設計新景點，以充分利用我們所做的投資，都是一個令人難以置信的貢獻。

Smoot's inventions at Disney have even been awarded outside of the company.

斯穆特在迪斯尼的發明甚至獲得了公司以外的獎勵。

Tonight we have the privilege of celebrating Lanny, whose work has taken us to places we could only imagine.

今晚，我們有幸為 Lanny 慶祝，他的作品把我們帶到了我們只能想象的地方。

In May, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

今年 5 月，他入選美國國家發明家名人堂。

I must have been doing something right during my years at Disney.

我在迪士尼工作的這些年，一定是做對了什麼。

Making him the second person from Disney to receive the honor.

這使他成為迪士尼公司第二位獲此殊榮的人。

It's a wonderful honor, but it is also a responsibility to carry on the bringing of new people, many people who look like me, into the fields of science and engineering.

這是一種無上的榮譽，但同時也是一種責任，那就是繼續把新人--許多長得像我的人--帶入科學和工程領域。

When I was a kid, I didn't see Black engineers almost till the time I was one, right?

當我還是個孩子的時候，我幾乎直到一歲才見到黑人工程師，對嗎？

I grew up in a wealthy area, I'll say that, and being able to be a role model for folks, again, that may not have believed that you could go into a field, it's wonderful.

我在一個富裕的地區長大，我可以這麼說，能夠再次成為那些可能不相信你能進入某個領域的人們的榜樣，這真是太好了。

But Smoot's induction doesn't mark an ending.

但斯穆特的就職並不意味著結束。

So as I talk, and my voice is louder or lower, I am making my little friend, that's just a still image in eight places, talk.

是以，當我說話的時候，我的聲音或大或小，我就在讓我的小夥伴（這只是一個靜止的影像，有八個地方）說話。

I'm proud of the things that I've been able to do over my career, that on the technical side are good technically and used, and on the fun side at the Walt Disney Company are technical and are used.

我為自己在職業生涯中所做的事情感到自豪，這些事情在技術上是好的，而且得到了應用；在華特迪士尼公司的樂趣方面，這些事情在技術上是好的，而且得到了應用。

 So, it's been a good time, and I want to keep going.

所以，這是一段美好的時光，我想繼續走下去。